For the French-speaking students,
there is, just issued (I discover it today), the
Grammaire sanskrite à l'usage des étudiants hellénistes et latinistes
by my Colleague Francine Mawet ; see:
http://www.peeters-leuven.be/boekoverz.asp?nr=9023
where in her self-presentation she refers to the
Sanskrit Grammar by M. Mayrhofer (1972)
(? translation of his German Sanskrit-Grammatik mit sprachvergleichenden Erläuterungen, 1964)

It is to be noted that the 
Grammaire élémentaire et pratique du sanskrit classique, avec exercices corrigés et textes expliqués
issued in 2010, by the "Classicist" (and Indologist) Sylvain Brocquet
See: http://www.safran.be/proddetail.php?prod=LCA16
is an excellent manual (with audio-examples available) for self-teaching.

With best wishes,

Louvain-la-Neuve

Editor, Publications de l'Institut Orientaliste de Louvain series
- Last Indological issues: PIOL nos 53, 60 
- Still available: Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra (vols 1-2-3-4-5),  Asaṅga's Mahāyānasaṃgraha, Vimalakīrtinirdeśa, Lamotte's History of Indian Buddhism, etc.

Le 11 oct. 2012 à 23:45, Matthew Kapstein a écrit :

For one at home in Greek and Latin, I'd recommend Bergaigne

Matthew Kapstein
Directeur d'études, 
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes

Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies,
The University of Chicago

dear Colleagues,

I have a colleague who is a classicist, whom I may be convincing it would be great to study Sanskrit. I'm not sure what would be the best book to use for someone who is entirely at home in Greek (and Latin) but doesn't know an Indic language. I thought of Stenzler, but then, which edition? Or is there a better choice? It may be disloyal given where I teach, but I consider Gonda to be impossible as anything other than a list of forms...

thanks so much in advance for the advice, jonathan
-- 
J. Silk
Instituut Kern / Universiteit Leiden
Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, LIAS
Johan Huizinga Building, Room 1.37
Doelensteeg 16
2311 VL Leiden
The Netherlands